Germany Raids Spyware Firm FinFisher
November 3, 2020
Authorities in Germany have acted on suspicions that spyware firm FinFisher, based in Munich, illegally sold its software to the Turkish government. It is believed that regime used the tools to spy on anti-government protesters in 2017. The independent Turkish news site Ahval summarizes the raid and the accusations in, “Spyware Company that Allegedly Sold Spyware to Turkey Raided by German Police.” We’re told:
“Germany’s Customs Investigation Bureau (ZKA) searched 15 properties last week, both in Germany and other countries. Public prosecutors told German media that directors and employees of FinFisher and other companies were being investigated. The investigation follows complaints filed by NGOs Reporters Without Borders, Netzpolitik.org, the Society for Civil Rights (Gesellschafft für Freiheitsrechte, GFF) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. The NGOs believe that a spyware product used in 2017 to target anti-government protesters in Turkey was FinFisher’s FinSpy. Germany’s Economy Ministry has issued no new permits for spyware since 2015, while the software in question was written in 2016, meaning that if it was used, it must have been exported in violation of government license restrictions.”
Activist group CitizenLab asserts the Turkish government spread the spyware to protesters through Twitter accounts. These accounts, we’re told, masqueraded as sources of information about upcoming protests. As far back as 2011, FinFisher was suspected of supplying regimes in the Middle East with spyware to track Arab Spring protestors. The software has since been found in use by several authoritarian governments, including Bahrain, Ethiopia, and he UAE. Just this September, Amnesty International reported FinFisher’s spyware was being used by Egypt. For its part, of course, the company denies making any sales to countries not approved by German law. We shall see what the investigation turns up.
Cynthia Murrell, November 3, 2020
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